Farm to Table Cauliflower Mash

One of the most fun “country bumpkin” activities is the farmers market in uptown Kingston. Not necessarily because of the location, but for the amazing fruit and produce selection and more importantly the COLORS. There is reddest radishes, purple cabbage, yellow corn under the greenest husks and this weeks personal favorite orange (on the edge of dark yellow) cauliflower from Maynard Farms.

I was undecided on what to make with this new vegetable. Steaming it sounded too boring for such a colorfully pretty vegetable. There are many people in the food world that have gone the “healthy” way with mashed potatoes and substituted cauliflower for the starch. I set off on to the adventure of cauliflower mash.

Here are the pretty friends at home.

I cleaned the cauliflower and chopped it into pieces.

The cauliflower then went into boiling water with salt, pepper, bay leaves and four whole garlic leaves.

Once the cauliflower was soft enough to be stabbed with a fork, the water was drained.

The cauliflower went back into the pot. Two tablespoons of cream cheese, half a cup of skim milk, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and oregano all went into the pot as well.

Then the fun part came along. Mash. Mash. Mash. And then mash. Mash. Mash. At this point you could put the mash into the food processor if you would like a smooth mash, but in our house there was a request for a chunky feel.

The mash was then put into a serving bowl, topped with fresh grated parmesan cheese and fresh crushed pepper.

Finding alternative foods for those that are calorie-conscious is very important. The cauliflower is low in fat and high in fiber, folate and vitamin C. Going to the farmers market opens you to new and different vegetables. The other benefit of new vegetable, just like the golden cauliflower, is the new adventure of making something for the first time. A curse to some, but a blessing to this foodie in the country.

“Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.” ~ Voltaire